6:42 am

Thu July 12, 2012

Contents Of Ireland's 'Big House' Auctioned

We are following other stories around the world this morning, including this one from Ireland, where because of the eurozone crisis many people don't trust the banks anymore. They'd rather put their money, if they still have some, in art or antiques, and they had an opportunity to just that when an Irish aristocrat named Ambrose Congreve died last year at the age of 104. He left behind a mansion full of treasures, and the contents of his estate have gone up for auction. Here's NPR's Philip Reeves.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: People have come from far and wide. They're crammed into a big tent at Mount Congreve, a country estate with world-famous gardens, tucked amid the woods and rolling fields of southeast Ireland. A treasure trove is going under the hammer. There are lacquered screens and vases from Imperial China. Rare books, Georgian silver, vintage wines, chandeliers and gilt mirrors and enough antique furniture to fill a palace.

FONSIE MEALY: Everything is on offer. It's a complete clearance of the entire estate.

REEVES: That's auctioneer Fonsie Mealy of Mealy's Fine Art, who're conducting the auction in association with Christies. Ambrose Congreve, whose property they're selling, was a multi-millionaire, a friend of Winston Churchill and the Rothschilds. He's from a Protestant, Anglo-Irish aristocratic family that's been here for centuries. Unlike many, he stayed on after Ireland won independence from Britain.

REEVES: The auction begins, and the money starts flying. Some items fetch far more than the listed price.

MIRIAM MCDONNELL: Obviously, there's some tapestries on the wall there facing us, and I think that's Chinese wallpaper.

REEVES: Outside, Miriam McDonnell and her two daughters are peeping through the windows of the Big House. Congreve gifted his house and his gardens to the Irish nation, but not the art and antiques. McDonnell regrets his collection is being broken up.

MCDONNELL: It just lacks foresight. And I think our generations afterwards will say why did they do it? How could they have done it?

(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)

REEVES: These are hard times in Ireland. Property prices have collapsed. Trust in banks and markets has withered away. Those who have money are looking for somewhere else to invest it - so they've come here.

EDDIE SCOTT: I still hold stocks in Irish companies and, but I would say if you put a split on my investments that around about 70 or 80 percent is in antiques.